Kult & Punk managed to knick the interview with St Pauli number one Thomas Kessler. Thankfully Martin Sonnleitner, is a very nice man and doesn't mind in the least. Guest Ale of the Month at Zoe's Bar is Dockers Lip, you can try it first.Thomas Kessler has been in fine form between the posts for FC St. Pauli since inheriting the number one spot from Mathias Hain at the start of the season.
The 24-year-old custodian, currently on loan 1. FC Köln, spoke with bundesliga.de after the 2-2 draw with SC Freiburg about missed opportunities, the need for improvement and his faith in the team's ability to deliver it.
bundesliga.de: Thomas Kessler, you saved a penalty early on in the match. In the end though, St. Pauli had to settle for a point. Are you more happy about the former or annoyed about the latter?
Thomas Kessler: I'm always very happy when I can help the team. And it's the first penalty I've saved at this level, in the Bundesliga. It was nice, but I'd rather have let it in as long as we'd won. So I'm annoyed that we scored two goals and still only came away with a point.
bundesliga.de: Marius Ebbers opened the scoring just after your penalty stop � all pretty dramatic stuff...
Kessler: It was a great situation, the saved penalty and then we went 1-0 in front. It was good for the atmosphere. But come the final whistle we hadn't won the match, which is a pity.
bundesliga.de: Did you second-guess the spot-kick, or had you prepared for it?
Kessler: Obviously I'd taken a look at a few of Cissé's penalties, but there's always an element of luck involved in these things too.
bundesliga.de: He still ended up scoring both of Freiburg's goals. What was your take on them?
Kessler: They were basically two long balls that he managed to stick away. I don't think Freiburg were in good attacking form against us. But we got caught out twice. A player like Cissé has the quality to make the most of those chances. He's known for it, and we knew it.
bundesliga.de: Is it a similar story to so much of the first half of the season � played well, but unable to decide the contest?
Kessler: Yes, all-in-all it's not good enough. There was a lot of talk beforehand about us not scoring enough goals, needing new forwards. But the club chose exactly the right course of action and kept faith in the players already there. I'm very happy that two strikers � Ebbers and Gerald Asamoah � scored again. It's just unfortunate we didn't take the three points.
bundesliga.de: A lot of effort then for too little reward. What exactly is the cause of that?
Kessler: Our problem is that we're always being thrown off course by small things. We actually closed down our opponents well, Freiburg have certainly scored better-worked goals than those. We conceded them too easily. It's always the same story: if you're scoring at one end but not picking people up at the other end, that's going to happen. It's very disappointing.
bundesliga.de: On the other hand, Cissé is an expert finisher...
Kessler: That's a no-brainer. We know from our own experience how good strikers function in this league, and what the likes of Cissé can do. He doesn't need much room to score the kind of goals we wouldn't be seeing go past us last year in the 2. Bundesliga. But we still have to take a look at ourselves and put a stop to these mistakes as quickly as possible. I think we have the quality to do that. We need to be a bit more vigilant, then it will work out fine.
Interview: Martin Sonnleitner
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